Julia and Roxanne
by WhyTK
Summary: Doctor Hoffman, Vampire, seeks help.
1. Chapter 1

**This story is part of _Dark Shadows 2_, my concept of a sequel to Tim Burton's version of _Dark Shadows_, including the deleted scenes on the Blu-Ray Disc. It will appear in _Dark Shadows 2_ [if I ever finish it] as a flashback. I risk committing spoilers by publishing it now, but it is finished and I am so pleased with it that I have to publish it now. **

**"Julia and Roxanne" is also a sequel to:  
><strong>**1. the fanfiction story "Pretty Young Thing" by NichtBenz. ****I hope it will meet with her approval.  
><strong>**2. my fanfiction story "Doctor Hoffman, Vampire."  
><strong>**3. my fanfiction story "The Roxanne Drew Story." **

**This story finally connects "Doctor Hoffman, Vampire" and "The Roxanne Drew Story." **

**I promise that I will finish "****Elizabeth****'s Secret" and reveal what happened to Paul Stoddard - which are 2 different things. **

**I do not own _Dark Shadows_ or any of its characters, institutions, or entities. **

**"Julia and Roxanne" **  
>Roxanne's phone rings. By now, she has stopped crying, but only because she is exhausted. She is still huddled on the floor behind her front door.<p>

After the 1st ring, she says out loud, "Maybe it's Miss Elizabeth. Maybe she will tell me that she and her family are all safe."

After the 2nd ring, she struggles to her feet, saying, "Maybe she will tell me the charges were a crock, and she has already beaten them."

After the 3rd ring, she walks to the kitchen while saying, "Maybe she'll tell me to meet her at the Collinsport Inn tomorrow morning. We'll set up a temporary office and get started on the insurance claims."

After the 4th ring, she stares at the red telephone on the wall of the kitchen and says aloud, "Maybe I'll flap my arms and fly to moon."

She picks up the phone in the middle of the 5th ring. "Hello." Silence. "HELLO!" Just what she needs right now, some asshole of an obscene caller.

After Roxanne's 1st "Hello," Julia opens her mouth and moves her tongue and lips. No sound emerges. Stupid! Speech is modulated exhalation, which means you have to INHALE first. She inhales and tries again. "Roxanne Drew, please."

"This is she." Roxanne's brow wrinkles with concentration. Where has she heard this voice before?

"Roxanne, this is Julia Hoffman."

"Doctor Hoffman! Thank God you're all right! I thought you were dead."

Julia wonders, "Where did she hear that?" To Roxanne she says, "To paraphrase Mark Twain, 'Reports of my death are ... incomplete.' Roxanne, I need your help. Is your husband at home?"

"I'm not married. I never have been."

"The phone is listed under Edward Drew."

"My father. He died 2 years ago and my mother never changed the listing. I changed it after Mom died, but it won't show up until the new phone book comes out."

Thank God, Julia thinks. "Is Tony there with you tonight?"

"No, why would he be?"

Thank God again. "Do you have a car? Can you please come and get me?"

"Yes, where are you?"

"The phone booth in front of Parker's Market. Do you know where that is?"

"Of course, I can be there in 5 or 10 minutes."

"Wait a minute, there are ... complications."

"Complications?"

"I can't explain right now, but I don't want anyone to see me. What will you be driving?"

"A red and white '59 Ford station wagon."

"I'll be waiting in the alley between Parker's Market and Scott's Hardware. Approach from the north. If no one is in sight when you arrive, then stop in front of Scott's. Don't pull over to the curb, just stop in the street. Open your door a crack, just enough to make the inside light come on. When I see it's you, I'll come out of the alley and get in your right rear door. Be sure to leave it unlocked. And when I say no one in sight, I mean no car lights in any direction and no people on the side walks. If anyone is in sight, keep going. Drive around the block and we'll try again on the next lap."

"OK, I'm on my way."

"Wait, Roxanne ... there are other ... complications. I have ... changed since the one time you met me, at the Happening. When you see me, you might want to have nothing to do with me. I'll stand in the light for a few seconds so you can take a good look. If you want nothing to do with me, just drive away. No hard feelings."

"OK. Any other complications?"

"Yes, but they can wait. Thank you and God bless you, Roxanne."

Julia knows what red and white looks like and what a station wagon looks like, but she has no idea what a '59 Ford looks like. Hence the request that Roxanne open her door.

Julia steps out of the shoes, Thank God! She picks them up (by their strings, as usual) and runs back to the truck. She is about to drop them in the bed of the truck, next to the corpse, when she realizes there is urine on the soles. Cops have used urine stinking phone booths too, will they check the phone booth if they notice the urine on the shoes? She quickly walks to the end of the pier and drops the shoes in the water. She wonders what the police will think of the corpse's missing shoes. Then she runs back to Parker's.

Is there a way to find out what numbers were called from the pay phone? Julia does not know. But if there is, she does not want the police to use it and find the call to Roxanne. If the police don't know the murder was committed next to the phone booth, then they will have no reason check the calls. At least she hopes so. Therefore: get the truck, corpse, flask, and shoes away from the phone booth. And spread out the blood stains to where they can't be seen, or if seen, not recognized. And now all that is done.

She waits in a dark shadow at the mouth of the alley. 7 minutes later (7 minutes closer to sunrise, as Julia now measures time), she sees 4 headlamps approaching from the north. She watches with part of one eye past the corner of Scott's Hardware. About a hundred yards from the alley, the headlamps drop from 4 to 2. It must be Roxanne! She knows Julia is waiting in the alley and has dimmed her lights for Julia's sake. Please be Roxanne!

The car is a red and white station wagon and it stops in front of Scott's. The driver's door opens a few inches, the inside light comes on ... yes!, it is Roxanne at the wheel, red hair, half-moon-glasses and all.

Julia steps out of the alley and stands in the luminance of the headlamps to let Roxanne get a good look at her, to give her a chance to drive away if she wants to. She tries to smile at Roxanne but it feels grotesque and it must look even worse.

While Roxanne looks at Julia, Julia looks at Roxanne's car. So that is a '59 Ford, just like the police car in _Psycho_. And the phony police car in ... oh, what was that movie? Lee Marvin (whom she loves), Angie Dickinson (whom she loves even more), lots of violence, Ronald Reagan as the villain. Julia watched it on the Late Show during a drunk, sleepless night a few months ago. How can she wonder about something so trivial at a time like this?

In the meantime, Roxanne is thinking, "My God! What the hell happened to her?" But she keeps her foot firmly on the brake pedal.

The car does not move. Julia walks to the right rear door, opens it and says, "Thank you, Roxanne." She tries to get in ... and runs into what feels like a stone wall. She staggers back from the impact.

"Doctor Hoffman! Are you all right?"

Good question. A thought occurs to Julia. "Roxanne, may I get into your car?"

A puzzled Roxanne replies, "Yes, of course. Hurry before someone comes."

Julia gets in, no stone wall this time. An occupied car is a kind of dwelling place, and a vampire needs an invitation to enter. She closes the door, and sits down on the floor behind the front passenger seat, with her feet on the floor in front of her.

Roxanne drives away.

"Doctor Hoffman, what is going on? Why are you on the floor?"

"Drive now, talk later. Please. And please call me Julia."

"OK, Julia." Roxanne smiles for the 1st time since greeting Miss Elizabeth that morning. Part of her still wants to cry, but she smiles as she drives away with Julia. "You must be cold. I'll turn the heater on."

"No thank you, I'm fine. I'll explain later."

A few minutes later, Roxanne turns into her driveway and parks in the garage, as always. She turns around to talk to Julia. "We're home Julia."

"Describe the layout, please. I can't see much from here."

"We're in the garage. It's detached from the house. I always leave the garage door open because it's too heavy to fool with. I also want the neighborhood cats to have a place to get out of the rain."

"Do you have a cat or dog?" Julia does not know how animals will react to a vampire.

"Popper, Mom and Dad's cat, died a year ago. I haven't gotten a new kitten yet."

Popper? Julia will have to ask about that later. "Which side of the garage is the house on, left or right?"

"Left."

"Go inside, same as you always do. I'll follow in a few minutes. I'll come to the door with the least light on it. I guess that's usually the back door. I'll knock 3 times and then twice. I'm sorry about all the cloak and dagger shit."

"No sweat. Would you like me to have a drink or a cup of coffee waiting for you?"

Julia answers, "No, thank you." But she thinks, "You WILL have a drink waiting for me, but not the kind you mean."


	2. Chapter 2 Home

**WARNING: This chapter contains a semi-explicit description of Sapphic-sexual acts.**

**Chapter 2: "Home"  
><strong>As soon as Roxanne is inside, she switches off the outside light over the back door. She runs to the living room and switches off the outside light over the front door. Julia wants it dark, she shall have it dark.

"Go inside, same as you always do," Julia had said. Roxanne takes off her footwear, the same as she always does. They are the zippered boots she wore whenever it snowed in New York. She wore them to pick up Julia because she can run or fight in them.

Roxanne runs to her parents' room to get her mother's robe. Her own robe is too wet to put on Julia. Then she runs to the bathroom and finally drains the bubble bath - now flat and cold - from the tub. She returns to the kitchen and drapes her mother's robe over the back of one of the chairs.

Then she paces the floor barefoot, back and forth from the front door in the living room to the back door in the combination laundry room and pantry, and waits for the knock.

It comes on the back door, 3 and then 2. Roxanne runs through the kitchen and the laundry room, and opens the back door. "Come in, Julia, come in." As soon as Julia is inside and the door is shut, Roxanne says, "This is perfect, the back door opening into the laundry room. Get out of those wet things."

"Yes indeed, perfect," Julia thinks.

Roxanne helps Julia out of the wet dress and drops it in the washer. "Undies too," Roxanne says. "They are supposed to be washed in the gentle cycle, but a load this small we'll do the whole thing on gentle and it'll probably all get clean. I'll get you a robe."

Julia removes her bra and panties and drops them in the washer. When Julia takes off her bra, the $14 fall to the floor in a single wet wad. Julia puts it on top of the dryer. When Roxanne returns, does she hesitate for a moment, maybe to get a good look at Julia in her nakedness, before holding up the robe for Julia to put her arms into it? Julia certainly hopes so.

"Thank you, Roxanne."

"You're welcome." She starts the washer. "Come on, I'll make some hot coffee."

"No coffee, Roxanne, unless you want some. I will never drink coffee again."

"Why not?"

"The same reason I look like the way I do now. The same reason as all the crazy shit I've put you through tonight, and the even crazier shit I am about to put you through, if you let me. Let's go to the living room and talk."

In the living room, Julia asks, "What is burning in town?"

"The Collins Cannery." Roxanne's voice trembles and she is close to tears again.

Julia uses the blasphemy her maternal grandfather would have used on such an occasion. "Jesus H. Tap Dancing Christ on a Bicycle! What the hell is going on in this town?"

"Angelique played a tape of Barnabas Collins confessing to killing you, and the construction workers, and the hippies in Arcadia. She said the cannery fire was to dispose of even more victims. Then she led the cops and the mob to Collinwood. Even with the cops along it looked like a lynch mob.

"Because it was Angelique, I assumed the tape was a fake. I tried to call Miss Elizabeth from the drugstore and warn her, but there was something wrong with the phone. And you're alive! That proves the tape is a fake!"

"No, it's not. Barnabas did kill the hard hats and he probably killed the hippies. And he thinks he killed me. But as I told you on the phone, reports of my death are incomplete."

"Oh my God! Why is Barnabas killing people?"

"Roxanne, before I answer your questions, I have to ask you a very personal question. Please believe me, it is relevant to all this."

Roxanne swallows hard, suspecting what the question is, but says, "Go ahead."

"Are you a lesbian?"

"Yes. You are the 1st person in Collinsport I have ever told. What about you?"

"I used to be bisexual. But all my relationships with men have ended badly ... so badly." She shudders. "I'll stick to women from now on. So Tony Peterson is not your boyfriend?"

"Tony is my cousin. He's recently divorced and I'm single. Neither of us wanted to go to the Happening alone, so we went together."

"OK. Like you, I am a lesbian. But now I am something else too.

"Why does Barnabas kill people? Why do I look like him now ... I do look something like him now, don't I? Kabuki-skin, raccoon-eyes, long fingers?" She holds up her hands and waves her long fingers.

"Yes." Roxanne is trembling now.

Julia nods. "Why have I put you through this crazy shit, and promised you even crazier shit to come? There is one answer to all these questions, but I can't tell you what it is. I have to show you. If I simply told you, you would not believe it. And before I show you, I must warn you. As Hamlet told Horatio, 'There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.' I am about to show you one of those things, and it will change your perception of the world forever. If you don't want to know this thing, please tell me now. I will get my wet dress out of the washer, walk out the door, and you will never see me again. I promise. And the same thing goes after I show you this thing. If you want me out of your house and out of your life, then just say so. I will go and you will never see me again."

Roxanne kisses Julia. Then she steps back in surprise and says, "My God, Julia, your lips are cold! You must be freezing! Take a hot shower while I make that coffee, or even better some hot soup."

"No. My coldness is one more piece of the crazy shit I promised you. When I show you what I am, then you will understand the cold and everything else. But I must warn you of one more thing. This is an experiment as well as a demonstration. It might be dangerous to you. I have done this only once before, and that was very different from how I will do it with you. It should be much better and safer doing it with you, but I can't guarantee it."

Roxanne kisses Julia again, longer this time. "Actions speak louder than words, Doctor. Do it, Julia. Whatever it is, shut up and do it."

Julia smiles at the brave, levelheaded Maine Yankee. "So be it. Please take off your glasses and lie down on the couch. Or tell me to go."

Roxanne kisses Julia's cold lips again, then takes off her glasses and lays them on the table at the end of the couch. But she does not lie down just yet. She says, "I better take this off too." She pulls up the left side of her sweater to reveal the .45 automatic stuck in her belt on her left hip.

"What the hell is that for?!"

"You said you did not want anyone to see you. I thought the lynch mob might be after you too. I was girding myself up to shoot my friends and neighbors, and maybe even my relatives. I was not looking forward to it. But I would have done it to defend you."

She draws the .45 and holds it at her side. "I also thought maybe you started the fire at Collinwood and killed Miss Elizabeth and her family. If you had, I would have killed you for it."

Roxanne turns her back on Julia to face the end table. She removes the magazine from the pistol and lays it on the table next to her glasses. She releases the safety and pulls back the slide to eject the cartridge in the chamber. She pushes up the slide stop to hold the slide open. Roxanne lays the ejected cartridge and the pistol on the table, and then lies down on the couch, with her head to Julia's left.

Julia moves close to the couch and says, "You met me just once before tonight, and it was only for a minute or two. How do you know you can trust me? How do you know I didn't kill Lizzie and her family?"

"In terms of fact and reason, I don't know it, I can't know it. But I'll take my chances. So I repeat, 'Do it, Julia. Whatever it is, shut up and do it.' "

Julia kneels on the floor next to the couch. Roxanne's arms go around her. Julia kisses Roxanne on her mouth, eyes, forehead, and mouth again. She puts her left hand behind Roxanne's head, and into all that wonderful red hair. Her right hand caresses Roxanne's left thigh, and then between her legs through her jeans. But she is careful to not use her nails.

Roxanne kisses back as hard as she can every time Julia's lips touch hers. She is loving every second of this, in spite of the fires at the cannery and Collinwood, and in spite of Julia's cold lips and hands - a cold she can feel even through her jeans. And this would be so much better naked, why didn't Julia have them undress each other 1st? And there is nothing in any of this that is undreamt of in her philosophy.

Julia's left hand turns Roxanne's head to the right, leaving the left side of her neck exposed. She kisses that neck - and then bites it.

If there is anything Julia Hoffman knows as well as she knows the pleasures of drink, it is the sight and sound and _feel_ of a woman's body coming like a vacuum cleaner under her touch - and that is what she is touching now. Julia is coming too, but not where she always did before she woke up as a vampire. She is overjoyed to learn that a bite can be pleasing for both parties.

And Roxanne's blood! Sweet and salty and rich and warm and wonderful. Why is it so much better than the phone-booth-pissing-pig-dog? Is it because Roxanne is sober?  
>... a woman?<br>... a willing partner?  
>Is it because Julia is biting Roxanne with love, or at least lust, rather than a combination of hate and desperate thirst?<p>

Julia swallows one mouthful of blood and then a 2nd. She wants it all ... NO! Drinking all of it would kill Roxanne, the same as it killed the pig-dog. It is the hardest thing she has ever done, but Julia pulls herself away from Roxanne and backs up half way across the living room. By reflex, she licks the blood from her lips.

Julia's aim was true, she missed the major blood vessels. The blood from the punctures in Roxanne's neck is a trickle, not the spurt of an artery or the steady flow of a vein.

Roxanne stares at Julia with wide shocked eyes. "Wh ... wh ... what ... did ... "

"I am a vampire, Roxanne. I bit you and I drank your blood. I wanted to drink all of it, which would have killed you. Stopping was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life ... or my death. Do you want me to go?"

"I...don't...be...lieve...it...you...you..."

Julia returns to the couch and holds out her hand. "Take me to your bathroom."

A puzzled Roxanne takes Julia's hand and Julia helps her up. Roxanne leads the way to the bathroom. She looks in the mirror, sees the puncture wounds, and gasps. She reaches up to touch them, to make sure they are really there. Then she turns to Julia. "I still don't believe it. You used some kind of tool ... or ... or ..."

Julia smiles. "Still the levelheaded Maine Yankee. I'm proud of you." She puts her right hand on Roxanne's shoulder and points her left hand at the mirror. "Where am I?"

Roxanne looks in the mirror. She sees herself. She does not see Julia, not even the hand on her shoulder, not even the pointing left hand, just inches from the glass. She wobbles, and Julia steadies her.

Julia repeats her earlier question. "Do you want me to go?"

Roxanne stares at Julia for a long time. Julia is about to repeat the question when Roxanne looks around the bathroom and says, "Not enough room in here. And I need to sit down. Let's go back to the living room."

She leads the way back to living room and sits down on the couch. She puts her glasses back on. Julia stands in front of Roxanne, her toes nervously clenching and unclenching the carpet. She thinks, "This is the 1st time I have been nervous tonight. What I am I more afraid of? Dying in the rays of the rising sun if she tells me to go? Or never seeing her again if she tells me to go?"

Roxanne asks, "Why did you do that while we were still dressed?"

Julia blinks in surprise. She has been trying to anticipate Roxanne's questions, but this one never occurred to her. "I didn't think of that. If I had, I still would have done it the way I did, because you might have told me to go afterwards, and I wanted you to be able to do that. In your own mind, your nudity might have undermined your authority to say 'Go.' My nudity might have tempted you to keep me around for purely ... physical reasons. At least I hope my body is still tempting. I will ask you again: do you want me to go?"

"You said Barnabas thinks he killed you. Is he a vampire, did he do this to you? If he did, then why didn't the hard hats and the hippies rise as vampires? If they had risen and started biting people, everyone in town would be a vampire by now."

"Yes, Barnabas is a vampire. And he did bite me. He expected it to simply kill me, the same as it killed the construction workers and the hippies." Julia tells Roxanne about hypnotizing Barnabas and about the transfusions. She feels like she is violating doctor-patient privilege. Barnabas was not really the patient, Julia was. But Barnabas _thought_ he was the patient, so isn't everything she learned from him privileged?

She concludes, "I think it was the combination of the transfusions _plus_ his bite that made me a vampire. And maybe my desire to be a vampire, to live forever.

"I am also a liar and a thief. I lied to Barnabas about the transfusions and I stole his blood. He was my patient, or at least he thought he was, and I used him for my own benefit. This is the 1st time I've said that out loud. Somehow it makes the wrong I've done real to me." She laughs bitterly. "I had to become a vampire to rediscover my professional ethics, and my morals.

"How can I ask you for help, after telling you how I betrayed Barnabas? I'll get my dress out of the washer and get out of here. I'm sorry I got you into this."

She turns and walks toward the kitchen.

"Julia!"

Julia stops and turns back to face Roxanne.

Roxanne stands up and says, "You did not betray _me_. You could have sucked me dry, but you stopped, even though it was the hardest thing you've ever done." She pulls her sweater over her head, and drops it on the couch.

"Hello," says Julia, in a fake English accent. "That's interesting."

Roxanne smiles and says, "Don't you mean _they_ are int- ... Oh!" She looks down at herself, and sees the gold cross hanging just above her bare breasts. It was a confirmation gift from her parents.

"You're not repelled by the cross! That part of the legend isn't true!"

"I'm a Jew. The orange hair is real, but I _am_ a Jew. To me the cross is an instrument of death by torture. Making it holy is like making the stake holy, the stake as in burning people at the stake, not the strake you drive into a vampire's heart. Too many of my ancestors were crucified by the Romans and burned by the Christians for me to consider either of them holy."

Roxanne removes the cross and lays it on the end table, next to the .45. "Let's discuss theology some other time."

Roxanne moves close to Julia. She takes Julia's hands and puts them on her breasts, then kisses Julia briefly. "I love foreplay, Doctor. The next time you bite me, I want a lot of foreplay 1st." She kisses Julia again, longer and deeper this time, and pushes her breasts harder against Julia's hands.

Julia fights to keep her fingers straight, to keep her nails away from Roxanne's flesh.

Roxanne takes a step back. She takes off her jeans and panties and throws them on the couch. Julia's robe follows. She kisses Julia again, for a very long time, while caressing Julia with her hands and her breasts and even her feet.

When they take a break for Roxanne to catch her breath, Julia says, "I drank ... deeply from someone else before I called you. Maybe that's the only reason I was able to stop drinking your blood. Maybe I won't be able to stop the next time."

"We'll figure it out as we go." She kisses and caresses Julia again. Then she steps back a pace. She holds up her hands and wiggles her toes. "Have you noticed that I painted my nails?"

"The same color as mine." Julia holds up her long fingers. "When I became a vampire, my fingernails grew and changed shape. The paint cracked up and fell off."

"The day after the Collinwood Happening, I painted my nails for the 1st time in my life. I admired your nails - among other things - at the Happening so much." Roxanne kisses Julia's hands. "May I repaint them for you? There's plenty left in the bottle."

Julia smiles. "Perhaps later."

Roxanne smiles too, and takes Julia's hand. "Let's take that shower now. I'll put my gun, cross, and glasses in my room and then join you in the bathroom."

In the bathroom, Julia steps into the tub while Roxanne grabs a bar of green soap from the sink. This puzzles Julia because there is already a bar in the tub's soap tray. Looking more closely at the soap in Roxanne's hand, she asks, "Is that Lava?"

Roxanne smiles, as she kneels on the floor outside the tub. "In the TV commercials they call it 'the HAND soap,' but it's great for feet too."

Julia raises one foot, and looks at the bottom of it: it is black from the streets and sidewalks she walked on. "Oh shit."

Roxanne giggles. She turns on the cold water and wets the Lava. She points at the opposite wall of the tub enclosure and tells Julia, "Lean against that wall and raise your feet, one at a time obviously."

Julia knows instinctively that she could raise both feet at the same time by levitating or clinging to the tiles by her fingertips. But she wants to practice before trying these skills in front of Roxanne.

Julia follows Roxanne's instructions, and Roxanne scrubs the bottom of her right foot with the Lava. Julia is now actually happy that she wore the pig-dog's shoes in the phone booth. She would rather die in the rays of the rising sun than let Roxanne touch even one molecule of the pig-dog's urine. It's bad enough that she is touching a foot that touched the pig-dog's shoe.

Julia moans, and her nails scratch at the tile wall she is leaning on.

Roxanne stops and asks, "Are you all right?"

"I was until you stopped scrubbing. What you're doing feels wonderful."

"Good." She cups her hands to carry water from the tap to rinse Julia's foot, then scrubs it with the Lava a 2nd time. She rinses it again - and then she lightly runs her nails down the arch of Julia's foot. Julia screams briefly and jerks her foot away.

Roxanne giggles and says, "I'm sorry! I had to find out if vampires are ticklish."

Julia wiggles her long fingers and says, "I'll pay you back when I can use these things safely."

Roxanne giggles again and says, "I look forward to it. Other foot." She repeats the process with Julia's left foot, but without the tickling. She puts the Lava back on the sink, then steps into the tub. She kisses Julia again.

Roxanne turns on the hot water and adjusts the knobs until the temperature suits her. Then she flips the handle to send the water to the shower head.

Julia grabs Roxanne and moves her, swapping places with her so that Julia's cold vampire body will take the blast of old, cold water that will be 1st out of the shower head.

That suits Roxanne. She picks up the bottle of Herbal Essence shampoo from the corner of the tub and says, "Hold still and close your eyes. I am going to wash your hair and face."

Julia moans again with pleasure as Roxanne scrubs the seawater out of her hair. Then Roxanne gently washes Julia's face. The last time anyone but Julia washed her face was when she was a very little girl and her mother washed it.

"Rinse," Roxanne says as she moves Julia into the stream of water.

After Julia rinses her face and hair, she and Roxanne wash each other. Roxanne soaps Julia's hands for her after her long fingers fumble the soap. And after rubbing each other all over with soapy hands, they just stand together, kissing and hugging and caressing while slowly turning in the stream from the shower head. Julia continues fighting to keep her nails away from Roxanne's flesh. It's not easy with so much to distract her.

Julia had not felt cold when swimming ashore, or walking through the chill night air while soaking wet. But she was cold and alone for so long before coming to Collinwood that holding Roxanne's warm body while standing in the stream of hot water from the shower head feels wonderful.

Julia and Lizzie had never shared a shower. The pipes of Collinwood were so noisy and there were so many other people around that Lizzie refused to risk it. She would rarely even allow Julia to literally sleep with her. And when she did, she always insisted that Julia get up and go to her own bed at an indecent hour, long before the rest of the family began to stir. Lizzie had been wonderful to Julia in so many ways, but she was terrified of being caught with her.

Julia realizes that she can not literally sleep with Roxanne either. Roxanne sleeps in the night, and Julia will now sleep in the day - even more so than she did before.

Between kisses, Roxanne says, "You said you were going to show me something undreamt of in my philosophy. I have dreamt of vampires before tonight."

"You dreamt of them as mythological creatures. I showed you a real one."

"Ah, that's true. But you are not the 1st beautiful redhead lady vampire to give me an orgasm with her teeth."

"WHAT?!"

Roxanne giggles. "In _Dracula: Prince of Darkness_, Christopher Lee turned Barbara Shelley into a vampire. The morning after I saw it, I dreamt Barbara Shelley bit me ... right here." She presses 2 fingers into her left breast, just above the nipple. "I woke up in the middle of an awesome orgasm." She draws out the words " ... awesome orgasm."

Julia laughs, for the 1st time since she woke up as a vampire. She gently presses 2 of her nails against the same spots, drawing a moan from Roxanne. Julia says, "I'll try that myself sometime soon."

Then Julia says, "Speaking of movies, did you ever see the one with Lee Marvin, and Angie Dickinson, with Ronald Reagan as the villain? A black '59 Ford was a phony police car in it."

"_The Killers_, based very loosely on a story by Ernest Hemmingway. The 1st movie version of it was in 1946, with Burt Lancaster and ... _Ava Gardner_..." She moans the name "_Ava Gardner._"

Then the water changes from hot to merely warm. Roxanne says, "We're running out of hot water. Time to get out."

She turns off the water and both of them step out of the shower. The linen closet is in the bathroom, so Roxanne easily fetches 2 fresh towels. They take turns drying each other.

When they step into the hall, Roxanne listens for a moment and then says, "The washer has stopped. I'll be right back." She runs to the laundry room and moves Julia's things from washer to dryer. She starts the dryer and then returns to the hall.

Roxanne leads Julia to her bedroom. She stops in the hall just outside the door and kisses Julia again. "Wait here." Roxanne runs into the room just long enough to pull back the covers on her bed. Then she returns to Julia in the hall.

"Julia, I have never wanted a husband. But I _have_ always wanted to be carried across the threshold. None of my human girlfriends was strong enough to do it. Are you?"

Julia scoops Roxanne up in her arms. Roxanne's arms go around Julia's neck, and her lips go to Julia's. Then she whispers in Julia's ear, "Sideways, so my feet and head don't hit the doorframe."

As instructed, Julia carries Roxanne sideways across the threshold. Then she kisses Roxanne before gently laying her on the bed. She kisses Roxanne again before getting into bed with her.

Julia kisses and licks her way down Roxanne's body. She lingers on the nipples and navel, and lingers longer on the naughty bits. She is pleased to learn that her tongue did not lose its ... cunning when it acquired a taste for blood. Roxanne seems to be pleased too. Lizzie made sounds like a well-bred cat when she came. Roxanne just gasps a bit - and tries to pull Julia's head inside her.

Julia kisses and licks her way back up Roxanne's body. She hesitates when she gets to Roxanne's mouth.

Roxanne does not hesitate - she grabs Julia's head with both hands and pulls their lips together, then drives her tongue into the mouth that now tastes of herself.

After the long kiss, Julia says, "I'm glad to see you're not one of those bitches who refuses to kiss the mouth that ate her."

Roxanne laughs and rsays, "Are _you_ one of those bitches?"

Julia smiles and says, "There's only one way to find out."

Roxanne does unto Julia as Julia did unto her - kissing, licking, lingering. Julia is pleased to learn that Roxanne has a ... cunning tongue too. Julia is also pleased to learn that she can still come in the usual way and in the usual place.

Roxanne kisses and licks her way back up Julia's body. She does not hesitate when she reaches Julia's mouth, and pushes a tongue that now tastes of Julia deep into Julia's mouth.

Julia does not refuse to kiss the mouth that ate her.

After a long, deep kiss, that mouth asks, "Was it good for you?"

"Yes. But it was better when I bit you."

"What?!"

"When you ate me, I had a clitoral orgasm, and it was wonderful. But now my fangs are sex organs too. When I bit you, I had two ... _dental_ orgasms."

Roxanne stares at Julia for a moment, then roars with laughter. She rolls back and forth on the bed laughing. Julia laughs too. At one point, Roxanne almost rolls off the edge of the bed, and Julia has to grab her to stop her. Roxanne yelps as Julia, in her haste, lets her nails touch Roxanne's skin.

And then the red telephone on the night-table rings.

**NOTES:  
><strong>A. Turnabout is fair play. In the original _Dark Shadows_, actress Donna Wandrey, a redhead, played 2 different characters named Roxanne Drew. One of them was a vampire who bit [off camera] 2 of her fellow redheads:  
>1. Maggie Evans, played by Kathryn Leigh Scott.<br>2. Dr. Julia Hoffman, played by Grayson Hall. Now, at last, Julia bites Roxanne ... but with love.

B. I borrowed the term "naughty bits" from _Monty Python's Flying Circus_.

C. The Criterion Collection has released both movie versions of _The Killers _in a set of 2 DVD's. You can find it at amazon.

D. Grayson Hall played Dr. Hoffman _et al_ in the original _Dark Shadows_. She and Ava Gardner co-starred in the movie _The Night of the Iguana_. Ms. Hall played a repressed lesbian, who did not hit on Ava Gardner's character.


	3. Chapter 3 Good News

**Chapter 3  
><strong>The red telephone on the night-table rings.

Roxanne blots upright in bed with a scream. Julia, still on her back, flies straight up and literally hits the ceiling. Then another new instinct takes over, and she lands on her feet on the floor beside the bed.

The phone rings again while they are both staring at it. Roxanne cries, "What do I do? What do I do?"

Speaking more calmly than she actually feels, Julia says, "What you always do, answer it. But if it's for me I'm not here."

"Oh, of course ... how stupid of me."

Roxanne's hand is trembling as it reaches for the phone. She yelps and jerks her hand back when the phone rings a 3rd time. Then she grabs it before it can ring again. "H-Hello?"

"Roxanne, it's Elizabeth."

"Miss Elizabeth!" Roxanne cries. Julia sits on the bed close to Roxanne, where her vampire ears can hear Elizabeth better in the receiver, even when it's pressed to Roxanne's pretty ear. Roxanne tilts the receiver towards Julia, who does not try to tell her that she can hear just fine. "Miss Elizabeth! Are you all right? Is your family all right?"

"Yes, Roxanne, thank you. Angelique set fire to the cannery and tried to frame us all for murder. When that didn't work, she tried to kill us all by setting fire to Collinwood. We got out. She didn't."

"Thank God, Miss Elizabeth, thank God!"

"Roxanne, I'll need your help tomorrow."

"Anything, Miss Elizabeth, just name it."

"Angelique knocked Carolyn and Willie out cold. They're in the hospital for 24 hours of observation. There's a vacant bed in Carolyn's room. I'm sleeping there, or at least trying to. Even with a sleeping pill, I don't think I'll get much sleep. I expect to be groggy tomorrow, and I have a lot to do. Can you drive me?"

"Where and when? Just name it."

"Catherine Harridge opens her insurance office at 8AM. Can you pick me up at the hospital 10 minutes before that? And dress casually, I think it's going to be a long and busy day."

"I'll be there, Miss Elizabeth. Thank God you and your family are all right."

"Thank you, Roxanne, and God bless you. Good night."

"Good night, Miss Elizabeth."

Julia and Roxanne hug each other, with Roxanne crying, "They're all right! They're all right! Thank God!"

"Yes, thank God. Hey, you better get to bed and go to sleep if you're going to any less groggy than Elizabeth tomorrow."

"I'm so excited, how am I ever going to get to sleep?"

Once again, a new instinct tells Julia what to do. She waves her long fingers in front of Roxanne's eyes and says, "Go to sleep."

Roxanne's eyes shut and she is asleep sitting on the edge of the bed, her breathing slow and regular. Julia eases her down onto the bed and then gently shakes her awake.

Roxanne looks at Julia and says, "What happened?"

"I hypnotized you. I told you to go to sleep and you went to sleep. Now get under the covers and I'll do it again, but this time I won't wake you up."

"Not so fast, Doc! I have to put on my night things, brush my teeth, and say my prayers."

Roxanne's night things turn out to be her panties and an oversized t-shirt. She looks very sexy that way.

She brushes her teeth and then says, "Let me show you your room. I assume you want the room that gets the least sun?"

"Yes. Definitely."

Roxanne opens a door in the kitchen, revealing a flight of steep narrow stairs going down to the cellar. She flips on the light switch at the top of the stairs, then flips it off again and cries, "No! No light. Wait here, I'll be right back." She soon returns with a flashlight. "Follow me, and watch your step."

Julia follows and asks, "Why the flashlight?"

"There are small windows up near the ceiling. If there's a peeping Tom outside, the overhead light would give him quite a show right now. A naked vampire and scantily dressed me."

When they reach the bottom of the steps, she says, "My mother hated this cellar. I don't remember her ever coming down here. I do remember her thanking God for the laundry room behind the kitchen every time she did the laundry. When she died, I quit my job in New York and moved back here. And unfortunately I cleaned those windows, for the 1st time since the last time my father cleaned them." She points to one wall and says, "That's the south wall, so it gets no direct sunlight, ever."

Roxanne points to the small windows in all 4 walls just below the ceiling.

"Tomorrow I will get some black spray paint and paint over those windows. Then there will be NO sunlight down here, and we can use the overhead light. And I will put a lock on the door. A lock with the knob on this side and the keyhole on the other side."

"Don't get them at Scott's Hardware."

"Why not?"

"There's a thing called guilty knowledge. The more you know about a thing, the harder it is to act like you DON'T know about it. Especially if someone asks you about it or tells you about it. So I am not going to answer that question ... or tell you about the 1st time I drank blood."

Roxanne shivers.

"I'm sorry."

"It's not just what you said. I have never been down here so scantily dressed before, and this _is_ fall in Maine."

"Wait a second. Do those stairs led to the outside?" Julia points to a short flight of stairs set in the east wall.

"Yes, they lead to one of those slanted doors in the foundation. It's right next to the driveway. Dad was always satisfied with a padlock on the outside of it. But after he died, Mom asked me to install another lock on the _inside_ of it. So I did."

"YOU did? And YOU will install the lock on the door at the top of the stairs?"

Roxanne grins. "My father was a Maine Yankee hunter, fisherman, and builder - and his only child was a girl. Mom taught me to cook and sew, but Dad taught me to handle guns and tools and a fishing rod. Hey, do you want me to build you a coffin?"

"Thank you, that's a great idea. But build me a simple box, not something that LOOKS like a coffin. There's $14 on the dryer. I hope that'll cover at least part of all this. But soak the bills in fresh water before you spend them. Right now they are soaked in seawater."

"OK. Can you make do with a blanket over you until then?"

"Sure."

"OK. Come on." Roxanne leads the way to the room her late parents occupied for so many years. She gets a blanket and a pillow from the closet, then she thinks for a moment and hands Julia a 2nd blanket.

"What's the 2nd one for?" Julia asks "The 1st one is thick enough to keep out the sun."

"It's impossible to get a concrete floor completely clean, except maybe with some kind of scrubbing machine, which I don't have. So you'll need a blanket under you to keep your clothes clean. Speaking of clothes, the dryer will buzz when it's done."

They return to Roxanne's bedroom. She sets and winds her alarm clock.

"I'll say my prayers and then you can hypnotize me again."

"May I say one with you? Remember, I'm a Jew."

"Of course." Roxanne kneels next to her bed and Julia kneels beside her. "Dear God, thank you that Miss Elizabeth and her family are all safe. Please help them through the difficult days ahead. Thank you that I was home when Julia called. Please help us to figure out what to do next. In Jesus name we ... _I_ pray. Amen."

Julia says, "Amen." Then she continues, "God, it's been a long time since I prayed, and I don't know if you will even listen to the prayer of a vampire, especially a Jewish vampire who did not keep kosher when she was alive and is even worse now ..."

("For the life of the flesh is in the blood ... Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood ... " Leviticus 17: 11 - 12)

"... but I will pray anyway. Everything Roxanne said goes for me too. And thank you for Roxanne. Thank you for her courage and her kindness. Please keep her safe, and that includes keeping her safe from me. Please strike me down if I ever try to hurt her. Amen."

Roxanne gets into bed and Julia tucks her in. "Good night and thank you and God bless you, Roxanne."

"Good night, Julia."

They kiss, then Julia waves her fingers at Roxanne and says, "Go to sleep." Roxanne's eyes shut and her breathing turns slow and regular.

Julia sings Millicent's Lullaby to the sleeping Roxanne. She feels silly doing it, she is not nearly old enough to be Roxanne's mother, but she can not resist. She could not sing it to her when she was awake, because Roxanne would have asked where Julia learned it. Save that for that tomorrow night, when they have more time.

* * *

><p>It is still dark when the alarm clock goes off and Roxanne wakes up.<p>

"Wow! What a dream," she says to herself.

Dream?

Roxanne leaps out of bed, switches on the light and looks in the mirror above her dresser. The puncture wounds in her neck are clearly visible. She reaches up to touch them, the same as she did in the bathroom last night.

"Holy shit," she whispers.

Trembling from head to toe, she walks slowly to the kitchen and flips on the light. The 1st thing she notices is the door to the cellar. It is open a crack, when it should be shut. Then she notices the cereal bowl on the table. It wasn't there last night. She looks into the bowl and sees water and money. She remembers Julia saying, "There's $14 on the dryer. I hope that'll cover at least part of all this. But soak the bills in fresh water before you spend them. Right now they are soaked in seawater."

"Holy shit."

Roxanne walks slowly toward the cellar door. She is still 3 feet from it when a voice from the cellar says, "Roxanne."

Roxanne jumps back a step.

The voice speaks again. "Roxanne, it occurred to me you might wake up thinking last night was a dream, similar to the one you had about Barbara Shelley after you saw _Dracula: Prince of Darkness_. It wasn't. Do you want me to go?"

Roxanne steps forward and pushes the door all the way open. She sees Julia standing at the bottom of the stairs, kabuki-skin, raccoon-eyes, long fingers and all. She is barefoot in the black and white dress, with the orange flowers on its white parts, just as she was when she stepped into the luminance of the Ford's headlamps last night.

"Do you want me to go?"

Roxanne descends the steep, narrow stairs as fast as she dares. She throws herself at Julia's body, her arms around Julia's neck and her legs around Julia's waist. She kisses Julia long and hard and deep. Then she whispers in Julia's ear, "Actions speak louder than words, Doctor. I just told you don't go, don't ever leave me, please don't ever leave me."

"Thank you, Roxanne. But I want you to think about it, _really_ think about it, every free moment you have today. Think about what it means, and think about what it _could_ mean. Please promise me you will do that."

"I promise." She kisses Julia again.

"You haven't even been to the bathroom yet this morning. Do that, get dressed, eat breakfast, and then we'll talk some more. I will stay down here where I won't distract you."

"How do you know I haven't been to the bathroom yet?"

Julia points up and says, "Pipes and vampire ears."

Roxanne laughs.

"Do you have something to wear that will cover the wounds on your neck?"

"A red turtleneck sweater."

"That might chafe the wounds. Put Band-Aids on the wounds 1st, see if they help."

"OK." Roxanne kisses Julia again and then goes to do as Julia says.

The Band-Aids work, the sweater does not chafe the wounds. Then Roxanne puts on blue jeans and her black thong sandals.

When she returns to the kitchen, she realizes she is still trembling a little, too much so to make her usual breakfast of bacon and eggs. She has cereal and buttered toast instead. No coffee. "I'm jittery enough already," she tells herself.

After breakfast, Roxanne goes back down cellar and tells Julia, "We'll have to talk tonight. I got up this early because Selby's Hardware and Lumber opens at 7:00 AM. I want to be there when it opens to get that spray paint and lock before I pick up Miss Elizabeth."

"OK, Roxanne. But I will ask one more time before you go, do you want me to go?"

Roxanne kisses Julia again, long and hard and deep again. "I will kiss you as many times as it takes to make you believe it when I say don't go, don't ever leave me, please don't ever leave me. And then I will kiss you some more."

"OK. We'll talk tonight."

Roxanne smiles and says, "Good _day_, Julia."

Julia laughs and replies, "Good _day_, Roxanne."

Then one last kiss and Roxanne leaves for Selby's.

* * *

><p>Selby's Hardware and Lumber is on the west side of Collinsport. Roxanne is parked at the front door and waiting when it opens on the morning of the day after the Night of the Collins Fires.<p>

She takes her time picking out what she wants, she needs to kill some time before picking up Miss Elizabeth. But she is also planning to reach the hospital before 7:50. She buys 2 cans of black spray paint and a big vertical deadbolt lock. When she sees they have a double-cylinder vertical deadbolt lock, that's the one she buys.

She opens the left rear door of the '59 Ford and pushes her purchases under the driver's seat. The hardware purchases are for Julia. Lying on the rear seat are some things for Miss Elizabeth. Roxanne smiles at the sight of them, just as she smiled when she was putting them in the car.

Then she drives to the small Collinsport Hospital.

* * *

><p>Julia goes down cellar, and spreads one of the blankets on the concrete floor in front of the south wall, just as Roxanne told her to do. She puts the pillow, which she is not sure she needs, at one end of the blanket. She holds the 2nd blanket in front of her and prepares to sit down and spread the 2nd blanket over herself from head to toe. Then yet another new instinct takes over, but this one does not work as advertised.<p>

"A vampire has hinges in her heels," Julia tells herself. "I can swing down onto the blanket like a trapdoor closing."

The new instinct does not tell her this maneuver will only work if she is standing on a firm surface. The friction between the blanket and the concrete floor is not enough to make the blanket qualify. It slides out from under her feet and she falls flat on her back, except for the pillow under her butt.

"Shit! So much for keeping my clothes clean."

Julia stands back up, turns around, and lies down the old fashioned way, with her head on the pillow. She spreads the 2nd blanket over herself, covering herself not just from head to toe, but covering the soles of her feet as well. She gets a grip on the far edge of the blanket with her heels, and pulls the near edge over her head.

When the 1st edge of the sun creeps above the horizon, Julia instantly falls into a deep sleep.


End file.
